What is the primary goal of the "define" stage in the customer journey design process?

In the customer journey design process, the "define" stage is crucial as it focuses on constructing a human-centered problem statement. This step is fundamental because it allows teams to articulate the specific challenges and needs that customers face, ensuring that any subsequent designs or solutions are targeted and relevant. By framing these issues accurately, organizations can better understand the context of customer experiences and prioritize their efforts towards solving real problems that affect the customer journey.

This stage sets the stage for later design and prototyping efforts, as a well-defined problem statement will guide creative solutions and keep the focus on delivering value to the customer. The emphasis on being human-centered ensures that the perspectives, needs, and emotions of customers are central to the problem being addressed.

While understanding customer emotions, building a service prototype, and evaluating design effectiveness are all important parts of the overall design process, they occur either before or after the define stage, making them secondary to the core aim of clearly identifying the problem at hand.